What Does Joshua 7:24 Mean?
And Joshua, and all Israel with him, took Achan the son of Zerah, and the silver, and the mantle, and the tongue of gold, and his sons, and his daughters, and his cattle, and his donkeys, and his sheep, and his tent, and all that was his, and they brought them up to the valley of Achor.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And Joshua, and all Israel with him, took Achan the son of Zerah, and the silver, and the garment, and the wedge of gold, and his sons, and his daughters, and his oxen, and his asses, and his sheep, and his tent, and all that he had: and they brought them unto the valley of Achor.THE KEY
The destination is named Trouble: a concealed breach has drawn not only Achan but his children, animals, shelter, and every possession into its reach.
THE MEANING
A concealed breach can extend beyond the person who holds it, drawing family, shelter, livelihood, and possessions into its reach. The list stays concrete, sons and daughters beside animals, a tent, silver, clothing, and gold, and the destination gives the gathering its name: Trouble.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
What I conceal can affect only me.
THE ROOT
עָכוֹר
ʿĀḵôr
GROWS FROM
עכר
To trouble, disturb, or bring distress.
Achor carries the root עכר, the same root Joshua uses in the next verse when he says, “Why hast thou troubled us?” Chronicles gives the name as Achar (עָכָר, ʿĀḵār) and calls him “the troubler of Israel”; Joshua’s spelling Achan (עָכָן) echoes that sound but is not the same spelling.
ALSO GROWS
ʿakhartānu: A form of עכר meaning “you have troubled us.”
עֲכַרְתָּנוּ
The next verse uses the root behind the valley’s name to describe the trouble reaching Israel.
ʿĀḵār: A name linked to “troubler”; the verse calls him “the troubler of Israel.”
עָכָר
This form makes explicit the name-and-trouble link that the valley of Achor carries in Joshua.
THE PATTERN
A breach held by one person can spread its cost through a whole community.
But the children of Israel broke trust with the devoted thing, for Achan, son of Carmi, son of Zabdi, son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took from the devoted thing, and the burning of the LORD's anger flared against the children of Israel.Wisdom is better than weapons of war, but the one who misses the mark causes much good to perish.Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?THE THREAD
And I will give her vineyards from there, and the valley of Achor as a door of hope. There she will answer, as in the days of her youth, and as in the day she came up out of the land of Egypt.Hosea names this same valley a “door of hope,” so the place called Trouble becomes a threshold rather than the last word. That hope does not erase the cost on display in Joshua; it opens a new possibility within the very name this verse gives.
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